


Six degrees warmer

by Scoby



Series: Reylo around Europe [1]
Category: Star Wars Sequel Trilogy
Genre: Activist Poe Dameron, Activist Rey (Star Wars), Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, Alternate Universe - No Powers, Biogas-powered vehicles, Ecoterrorist Kylo Ren, Enemies to Friends to Lovers, Enemies to Lovers, F/M, First Order eating lentil soup, French Rey (Star Wars), Gun Violence, Happy Ending, Kylo Ren Needs a Hug, Marriage Proposal, Online Enemies, Protective Kylo Ren, Resistance eating vegan pizza, Unprotected Sex, Virgin Ben Solo, Virgin Rey (Star Wars), Wordcount: 10.000-30.000, kylo ren gets a hug
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-05-23
Updated: 2020-05-24
Packaged: 2021-03-03 03:21:08
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 14
Words: 13,400
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24317971
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Scoby/pseuds/Scoby
Summary: Ecoterrorist group the First Order frightens whole Europe, while the Friends of the Earth advocates for a more humane approach to tackle the climate crisis. Their paths cross when the First Order starts a campaign where they need the face of Rey, the media and communications manager of the Friends of the Earth. But Kylo Ren develops other plans that start to entangle with Rey.
Relationships: Kylo Ren & Phasma & Snoke & Armitage Hux, Leia Organa & Rey & Han Solo, Phasma & Kylo Ren, Poe Dameron & Finn & Rey & Rose Tico, Poe Dameron & Rey, Rey/Ben Solo | Kylo Ren
Series: Reylo around Europe [1]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1927789
Comments: 5
Kudos: 10





	1. Chapter 1

Brussels was waking up to a sunny Thursday morning. Rising sun glittered on the glass buildings. A row of flags gently flapped in a mild freeze, most of them still falling under the shadow of the European Parliament building.

Kylo Ren lifted his binocular up to his eyes to scan Rue Wiertz far below him. It was still mostly quiet, apart from a couple of joggers and a dozen policemen. Three MEPs had already arrived, accompanied by bodyguards. Apparently, they were the ones who had got most frightened about the threat they had posted all over social media last week.

Kylo heard a faint click next to him. Phasma had removed the safety catch of her sniper.

“We should just stay here whole morning and kill them all”, he said to her.

“Hey, stick to the plan”, she responded in her normal, cool and focused tone. “You know that once they hear the shot, everyone’s eyes are going to be up here and the police on our tail. We have only one chance, so we…”

“…make it count, yes, yes.” Kylo was glad Phasma was with him, as she could always talk sense into him. “They just all so fucking deserve to die. Just like we posted: every MEP who votes against the carbon tax must die. Because they are eventually killing everyone’s future with that decision, and wiping out thousands of species. They shouldn’t die with your sniper bullet in the head but more slowly…”

“Focus, Kylo, only Palpatine. Do you see him?”

Kylo resumed his task of scanning the street in silence. More and more MEPs arrived and passed under the glass bridge that led to the doors of the parliament. Finally, he saw Palpatine turn from Rue Vautier, of course without bodyguards, as arrogant as he always was.

“Hux, we got him”, he said to his handheld radio. In the distance, he saw Hux turn the helicopter towards them.

Within seconds, Phasma had fixed Palpatine’s head in the middle of the crosshairs of her sniper. Without hesitation, she pulled the trigger. Palpatine’s brow disappeared into a red splash and he fell on the ground just a few meters from the corner of Rue Wiertz and Rue Vautier.

They stayed low and backed up a bit towards the centre of the roof. The policemen fired a few bullets their way but had no way of seeing them to aim properly. One of the upstairs windows broke with a crash when somebody hit that instead. But it was obvious that they would not only settle for shooting. Kylo and Phasma were holding their breaths, counting seconds until they would see a head appear over the edge of the roof.

But the helicopter was faster. With the door already open, Hux landed on the roof for just long enough for them to jump in and then took off at full speed. Bullets clanked on the helicopter’s frame without damage. They flew straight to the lab where they had a coverable garage for the helicopter.

\- - - - -

Poe Dameron lifted a megaphone up to his mouth to address the crowd, applause meeting his every sentence: “Good morning good morning! There must be hundreds of us here today. Awesome! We’re going to show them just how many and powerful we are and that – we – care! Just follow the front banner. And keep that noise coming, let’s start! What do we want?”

“Climate justice!” everyone responded.

“What do we want?”

“Climate justice!”

“When do we want it?”

“NOW!”

“When? When? When?”

“NOW! NOW! NOW!”

They continued the shout, leaving Place du Luxembourg, passing through Espace Léopold and southwards to reach the end of Rue Wiertz. They turned left and continued along Rue Wiertz. They were already within sight of the parliament doors, when a policeman stopped them.

“Come on, we have made an announcement and have a permission”, Poe resisted. He dug into his phone for the confirmation message from Brussels police.

“It doesn’t matter. This is a crime scene”, said the policeman.

“What?” Finn asked, stepping up next to Poe and peeking his head above the front banner carriers to have a closer look. He lifted a binocular in front of his eyes and zoomed into the shape he saw on the ground.

The face was an unrecognisable red mess, but this French MEP Finn could recognize just from his purple suit and velvet tie.

“Holy shit, it’s Palpatine, assassinated”, he said to Poe.

“Really? Well, I have to say I hated him, too. But seriously, who would go this far?”

“It’s the First Order, for sure”, Finn said. “Didn’t you see all the tweets and videos they posted? And Palpatine was always the loudest speaker against the carbon tax.”

“Ok, we’ll return to analyzing this, but now, more urgently, we need a plan B.”  
He turned to address the policeman again:  
“Hey, emmm, if this patch is closed, where do all the MEPs go in?”

“They can enter from Espace Léopold and use the glass bridge.”

“Let’s go back there, then. We just move the front banner to the back of this crowd and follow our own steps back”, Poe said to Finn, but the policeman still heard him.

“Your permission only allows you to _pass_ through Espace Léopold. This is the only street where you are allowed to stop.”

“Come on, you can loosen up a bit today, with the assassination and everything, isn’t it a bit too much to control every move of a little demonstration?”

“I received very clear orders that especially now your movement needs to be restricted to where you are. We cannot take any chances with big crowds on a day like this.”

“Seriously? Do you think we would be the ones to kill MEPs?”

“Poe, it’s not worth it to argue”, Rey placed a hand on his shoulder and continued by whispering closer to his ear: “You’re just making it more difficult for us to get a permission next time.”

After the last angry look at the policeman, Poe turned back to face the crowd and lifted up the megaphone again.

“Sorry guys, we’re stuck here. But the MEPs will be going in through that glass bridge and we’re fucking going to make sure that they hear us inside, right?”

Applause.

“Climate justice NOW! Climate justice NOW! Climate justice NOW!”

As everybody caught his words, he let go of the megaphone and turned back to Rey: “This is not going to be enough. We need to get the flyers to them.”

Rey nodded, shouldering again her backpack, which she had kept on the ground while waiting, as it was loaded full of flyers. “Ok, we’ll go with Finn and Rose to the bridge.”

They spent the rest of the morning on the glass bridge, lighting it up with their smiles, orange-coloured flyers and excited voices greeting every approaching person with: “Good morning! We are from the Friends of the Earth. Are you aware about how important climate justice is for the upcoming negotiations about carbon trade?” By ten o’clock, when the plenary session started, the bridge fell silent and they returned to meet up with Poe outside.


	2. Chapter 2

Snoke lifted a pot full of lentil soup in the middle of the table. As Kylo, Phasma and Hux proceeded to fill up their bowls, he turned on the livestream of the press conference from the European Parliament. One of the vice presidents spoke to the camera in a monotonous voice:

_Member of the European Parliament Étienne Palpatine has been assassinated this morning close to the entrance of the parliament. Police is investigating the case and so far we have no information about who is behind it._

_Madame, do you believe it is the First Order, as they just recently posted a very open death threat towards everyone who would vote against the carbon tax?_

_As I said, we currently have no further information we can disclose about the investigation._

_Madame, now that there is the possibility that also other MEPs who voted similarly are in danger, is the voting about the carbon tax going to be reopened?_

_That voting has been completed and all the MEPs have been following their own integrity. The European Parliament stands behind its decision not to implement the carbon tax._

“You stupid bitch”, Phasma hissed to the computer.

“This is the grip that the coal and oil corporations have on the parliament”, Kylo said. “They can’t even reconsider a single decision if it might harm their precious lobbyists. No, they rather sacrifice the lives of those who vote for that kind of decisions, because we are going to kill more of them.”

“That will be almost impossible to do now”, Snoke pointed out. “They will multiply the police guard around the parliament. If it’s the corporations that control the MEPs, we need to strike at them. Like at the Belgian Shell office.”

“The one where Kylo’s father works at?” Hux asked.

“He’s not my father anymore”, Kylo said sharply.

\- - - - -

“How did it go?” Leia asked when Rey and Poe showed up at the office after the demonstration. Poe went straight to his computer and started typing furiously, refusing to talk. Rey tried to respond positively:

“It was ok, though not exactly as we planned. Did you hear that Palpatine got assassinated?”

As Leia nodded with a heavy expression, she continued:

“So we couldn’t reach the parliament doors because that was right where it happened. But Poe really saved the situation. We went to deal out flyers to the glass bridge with Rose and Finn – those volunteers who come to every demonstration, you remember? – and we could hear the shouting from outside. I think Poe has never got them this loud before.”

To her satisfaction, she could see the corners of Poe’s mouth creep up a tiny bit as she kept emphasising his part in rescuing the demonstration.

The rest of the day she used on a blog post about the impacts of carbon trade in the global south. She had been planning to suggest Poe that they would shoot another video, but that would need to happen another day when he would be in a more presentable mood. After getting the blog post sent, she gathered her things and passed by Leia’s desk before leaving.

“I’m going now, to see Han”, she said, looking forward to seeing the effect of her words on Leia. It worked every time. Even now she saw her heart make a small but clear jump.

“Oh, say greetings from me”, Leia said, too obviously trying to not sound excited.

“Why don’t you come with me? Wouldn’t it be nice for you to see him again some time?” Rey tried her best not to sound pushy, but she could not get it why they were both so stubborn about not seeing each other, though she could clearly see that they still cared about one other.

Leia shrugged absent-mindedly and dove back into her screen. But Rey knew that she was still listening when she continued:

“Last time I met him, he said that he misses you.”

She was only slightly exaggerating. Han’s exact words had been “I think I might miss Leia”, but Rey figured that she had done him justice by repeating the words that he had actually meant to say. Han and Leia were the closest thing she had to parents now, and she could not let go of the fantasy that if they would get back together, it would be like she would have a family again.

As Leia showed no sign of reacting to her encouragement, though, Rey shouldered her backpack and left alone. She could make the distance to Han’s office by bike in only ten minutes. Now it took a few extra, as she dropped by at their favourite café to pick up two croissants.

Once she parked her bike across the road from Han’s office, she could easily see how different worlds Han and Leia lived in. The contrast between the offices of Belgian Shell and the Friends of the Earth was drastic. Still, there should be some way to get them to see through these external circumstances, as they so clearly were still in love as the people they were underneath.

Rey sat down on a bench between her bike and somebody’s huge motorcycle. The delicious smell from the croissant paper bag was starting to torture her nose, but she forced herself to wait, knowing that Han would come out in just about five minutes.

Looking at the door, she suddenly saw two figures exit and start running towards her. Both were completely hooded, a very tall man totally in black and a just slightly shorter woman in grey. They ran right up to Rey and jumped on the motorcycle that was parked in front of her. She could see a pair of dark eyes meeting hers through the tiny holes in the black hood, but only very briefly before they speeded away.

And right after they were gone, it happened. The whole Belgian Shell headquarters exploded. She curled up on the bench with her head hidden behind her arms and legs to cover from flying splinters, feeling the heat of the flames even across the road.

Quickly, police cars and fire engines filled the area and little by little the flames were extinguished, revealing the shattered ruins of the office building. Only then she realised that Han had been inside. She buried her face into her knees and cried her heart out.


	3. Chapter 3

Hux had shot excellent footage of the explosion with a drone. Snoke edited strategic bits of it into the video where he explained that this was going to continue. If the parliament refused to regulate the burning of fossil fuels, the First Order would burn down every company in that business.

He worked quickly and was ready to post it well in time for people to still watch it during the evening and go to sleep frightened. The First Order YouTube channel had millions of subscribers, most of them probably following out of fear rather than being actual fans of the organisation, but it did not matter. By night-time, they would have hundreds of thousands of eyes on their message.

“Which one is next?” Hux asked at dinner. It had been his turn to cook and they were eating buckwheat with white beans and pickled vegetables.

“ExxonMobil?” Phasma suggested.

“No matter how many of those we blow up, we‘ll need to back it up somehow, with more reach”, Kylo said. “They win by making us think that we’re alone. But we need to show them that everyone is going to go against them if they continue like this, because this is about everybody’s future, everybody’s Earth.”

“I know exactly whom we need for that.” Snoke’s eyes lit up. He shoved his empty plate to the dishwasher and pulled out his laptop on the table instead. After a bit of clicking and scrolling, he victoriously turned his laptop around and said: “We need her.”

“Jesus, do we have to pull my whole family into this?” Kylo asked.

“I’m not meaning her, look lower on the page.”

And Kylo’s eyes scanned down the whole page:

_Our Team at Friends of the Earth Europe_

_Advocacy director_  
_Leia Organa_

_Campaign Coordinator_  
_Poe Dameron_

_Media and Communications Manager_  
_Rey Palpatine_

_Our volunteers_

The page ended in a group picture of the volunteers. Kylo recognised several faces. The First Order attracted a lot of radical young environmentalists from all over Europe to Brussels to volunteer for them. But many of them ended up freaking out about their methods and quitting after a few months. Since they had already got started with a life in Brussels, though, many ended up staying and volunteering for the same cause in other, less radical organisations.

Kylo lifted his gaze back to where Snoke’s finger was pointing, to the picture of Rey Palpatine in the middle of the page. And he realized he had just seen her in front of Belgian Shell. She had somehow drawn his gaze even in the middle of their urgent escape. He glanced briefly at Phasma but she did not show any sign of recognition. No wonder, as she never got as easily distracted from a mission as he did.

“See some of her videos, Kylo, she’s excellent!” Snoke went on. “We’ll make one with her where she says that if the necessary political measures to limit global warming are not implemented, the Friends of the Earth will join us and pledges every other environmental organisation to do the same. Then they practically have a civil war in their hands: the fossil-based industries against everyone else. And that they cannot let happen.”

“Do you think she would agree to that?” Kylo looked at the eyes that shone like a binary star and the smile that looked like it was bubbling from a heart that was as pure as his was fucked up.

“I’ll make her. Just bring her to me.”

\- - - - -

After dinner, Kylo sat crosslegged on his bed, his laptop open on his nightstand in front of him, ready for research on Rey Palpatine. He opened first YouTube as Snoke had suggested. Rey did not have her own channel, but the Friends of the Earth channel was full of her. Kylo clicked on the video with the most likes.

_Hey, this is Rey…_

_…and this is Poe, and this is the Friends of the Earth channel. And today we’ll be talking about the doughnut economy…_

_…while eating these delicious vegan doughnuts! Don’t they taste amazing, Poe?_

_Yes, exactly, Rey! The link to the recipe appears right now here in this corner. But to our point now: Rey, can you tell us what the doughnut economy is?_

_Absolutely. You see how this doughnut has a hole in the middle and an edge, and all the delicious dough is contained between them. This outer edge represents the planetary boundaries. And this inner edge around the hole represents social justice – the possibility for everyone to have their basic needs met. So our task as humankind is to fit our economy inside this doughnut. And what it means in practice is…_

Kylo stopped the video and typed a comment:

_Hey, dreamers, do the math! Your doughnut is made of antimaterial, the hole is bigger than the outer edge. How could this planet possibly support social justice for this amount of people?_

Despite the bullshit content, he had to agree with Snoke that Rey was good. Exactly the kind of YouTuber that people loved, and he saw it in the amount of likes. She was natural, entertaining and cute, but still assertive and to the point, with fiery passion leaking through every word and gesture.

He shut his laptop when he heard a knock on his door.

“Come in!”

Phasma opened the door and closed it behind her.

“Am I interrupting you?” she asked.

“No, go ahead.”

“I just want you to know that if you want to talk about… what we did… I’m here for you. I mean, I’m not in touch with my parents either, but I still think I would be at least a bit of a mess if I would blow up one of them. So if there’s anything… let me know.”

Kylo stood up and hugged her. Phasma returned the hug in the same way as she had just a few of hours ago been attaching bombs to the ground floor of Belgian Shell: tight and fully present. That was soothing enough to wash away for a while the memory of the exploding building and the vision of his father’s head bursting to pieces.

“Thank you, Phasma. I’m ok. You guys are my family now.”


	4. Chapter 4

In the morning, Leia was early at the office, as usual, but it was obvious that she had cried, possibly almost the whole night. Rey ran straight to hug her.

“I’m so sorry, Leia.”

“I should have listened to you when there was still time. Now he’s never coming back. We failed, it’s as simple as that, as a couple and as parents.”

“You have a child?” Rey’s picture of Leia and Han just completely changed. She had not imagined that at some point they had been really living as a family.

“We had, yes, it’s been almost ten years since I last saw him. He left from home to join the First Order.”

“The First Order?”

“That was why we separated with Han and why it would have been too painful for us to see each other again, no matter how much we missed each other. We were blaming each other so much for failing him. And he really felt that we had. With the climate crisis about to escalate, he found that there was no future for him. To him it looked like his father was actively contributing to the crisis by working in the oil and gas industry, and I was doing, well, something but not enough and not the right things. That’s why he moved away and stopped all contact.”

“Do you know what he’s doing there?”

“How would I know? Snoke is the only person whose face anyone has ever seen from that organisation. It might not be anything bad. He might just be a volunteer who writes tweets and edits videos, who knows. But I do have my fears.”

“What’s his name?”

“Ben, at least used to be. I don’t know what they do to names in the First Order.”

Leia took a deep breath, wiped a tear from the corner of her eye and changed her tone in an instant:

“Ok, back to work. There are minutes out about the first round of the carbon trade negotiations and looks like they are finally acknowledging the need to prevent ghost offsets and emission exports, but I still cannot see enough practical actions being proposed there. Could you work on some kind of outreach around this? We need to get it on all our channels that we are not going to be happy with just watching them discuss.”

“Sure”, Rey smiled and went to her own desk.

Before getting started with work, though, the first words she typed in her search bar were _Ben Solo_. Nothing came up that could reasonably refer to a person with that name. She tried the same on Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter, Instagram and YouTube. There were some Solos and a lot of Bens but nobody with the combination. She changed to _Ben Organa_ , with the same result. Apparently, the First Order could be cruel to names.

\- - - - -

“Did you watch her videos?” Snoke asked as the first thing in the morning, beaming with excitement.

Kylo nodded. “Bullshit. But you’re right about her.”

“See what I hacked last night: Rey Palpatine’s Google calendar. Just pick when and where you snatch her.”

Sipping his coffee, Kylo browsed the calendar. Next week she would have lots of meetings where he did not want to go, because they were Friends-of-the-Earth-related, which meant a high chance of Leia being with her. But his eyes were caught by an event tonight: Global Food Sovereignty Lounge at Club Takodana.

Rey had marked a slot for her own presentation at 17:15 and a panel at 18:30. The whole event continued until 23, so apparently the rest of the night would be a party. With good luck, she would be drunk by 23, which would make his job easier. On the other hand, he would also need to prepare for the scenario of her leaving early, sober and alert, and quick to run away.

Kylo played with the idea of going without the hood, inside the club and blending in the crowd of activists. He could probably manage it. But then, as soon as he would snatch her, everyone would notice and see him. He would have to actually convince Rey to follow him out of her own will, and that route led to impossibility.

So he packed himself a clean hood and filled up the car from their biogas digester’s tank.


	5. Chapter 5

Kylo considered himself lucky to eventually find a parking place relatively close to Club Takodana. It was still too far to see the entrance, so he covered his head with the hood, stepped out of the car and found a place to hide where he could see the door. He did his best to find a comfortable position, as he had no idea about how long he would need to wait.

A couple of hours later, feeling chilly and numb, he saw her. She came out of the club with three other people, one of whom Kylo recognized from her videos, and one Asian-looking girl. The last person he remembered from somewhere else. He had probably spent a brief time as a First Order volunteer, but his name Kylo could not remember. Rey hugged each of them.

“Are you sure you don’t want me to take you?”

“No, stupid Poe, you would do it just to show off now that you finally have a biogas car. It’s just fifteen minutes for me by bike. And I don’t want to leave my bike here.”

“The bike would fit on the roof…”

“Good night, have a nice weekend!”

With that, Rey went off to a different direction from the others, towards a bike rack at the street corner. She looked and sounded definitely sober, so he would have to be quick.

As soon as Rey’s friends were done looking back, Kylo went after her. She was opening her bike, bent down. As soon as she lifted her head, Kylo hit it with a quick blow from his elbow, just enough to knock her out without causing permanent damage.

He caught Rey with his arm before she could fall to the ground. He bowed down to scoop his other arm under her legs, when he saw that Rey’s bike lock had fallen from her hand. The sight of it made him feel like a jerk. He was about to force Rey to leave her bike behind without a lock, in Brussels, where bikes were stolen like pens. He reckoned that he had time and put Rey’s unconscious body carefully down on the ground. He took the lock, fixed it around the bike frame and the rack and closed it with a click. Then he picked Rey up again and strode quickly back to the car.

Rey stayed unconscious as he fixed her on the front seat, attached her seat belt, sat next to her and drove away into the night. When he reached the lab, he lifted her up in his arms again to take her indoors.

“Good job!” Hux said, already waiting for him at the living room door, his hand reaching up towards Rey’s knee that lay on Kylo’s forearm.

Suddenly, Kylo did not want Hux to touch her. He squeezed her closer to himself, backed away and turned to the corridor that led to the labs.

“Where are you going?”

Kylo did not care to answer. He walked straight into one of the labs almost at the end of the corridor and pushed the door closed behind him.

There was no furniture apart from a fume hood, a table half-full of samples in test tubes, a couple of closets and a chemical shelf. But there were two centrifuges with roughly similar height so that he could place Rey somewhat curled up on them. 

He took of his hood, shook his hair loose and started to examine her more closely. He checked first the point on her brow where he had hit. It was swelling, but did not look too bad. Still, he was getting slightly worried that he might have punched too hard, because she still had not woken up. 

She was wearing a grey linen tunic with a badge screaming Climate justice NOW! in bright orange colour, attached close to her left collarbone. Her dark brown dreadlocks were gathered behind her head into three large buns. And her face seemed to radiate even more in real life than on camera.

Kylo was oddly fixated with taking in the shape of her nose, when her eyes opened. She sat up right away, looking frightened, then bringing one hand up to hold her head, breathing out heavily like she was in pain.

“Where am I?” she asked, voice both frightened and furious.

“You’re my guest. Rey Palpatine, right?”

“How do you know me?”

“You’re all over the Internet.”

“Who are you then?”

“I’m Kylo Ren.”

“That’s not your real name.”

“That’s enough for you for now. Are you related to… Étienne Palpatine?”

“Not as far as I know. It’s a pretty common surname in France.”

“So you’re French?”

“Vous ne l’avez pas entendu de mon accent?”

“I didn’t understand.”

“Haven’t you heard it from my accent?”

“Well, now that you say so, a little bit, but it’s not strong.”

“I’ve been working in English for so long. At Friends of the Earth everybody comes from all over Europe.”

“Is your family still in France?”

“What is this? An interrogation?”

“No, I was just curious, I didn’t mean…”

“Then why did you knock me off to bring me here? You still haven't even said where I am.”

Kylo fell silent. Rey scanned around the room with her eyes. With a quick movement, she jumped down from the centrifuge, reached the table behind him and snatched a large rack of test tubes in her hands. She lifted it up as high as she could reach, ready to let it go and splinter on the floor at any moment. Terror filled Kylo’s eyes.

“Rey, you have no idea what's inside. Put it down, gently, back on the table.”

“Tell me where I am and why and I won’t drop it.”

“I can say that we’re not far from Brussels. But this place does not really have an address.”

When Rey still held the rack up with the same stubborn expression, Kylo pulled out a map on his phone and showed her. It was true, they were not far from Brussels but very much in the middle of nowhere.

“And why am I here?”

“That’s what I was going to tell you next, but you got to put that rack down.”

“I want back home.”

“I promise I’ll take you back when we’re done. And nobody will hurt you. Just put that back on the table.” He hoped that Snokes plans would align with his promises.

With shaky hands, Rey lowered the test tube rack back on the table. As soon as it was out of her hands, Kylo grabbed her wrist and puller her out of the door.

“I can walk without you holding my hand”, she hissed and shook her hand loose.

She followed Kylo’s towering figure through a long corridor with several doors on both sides. Behind one door, she heard mild shrieking, but it did not sound like coming from a human.

At the end of the corridor, they reached a completely normal-looking living room.


	6. Chapter 6

Rey was sat onto a sofa next to Kylo and given leftovers of the dinner that Phasma had cooked while she still was in Brussels thinking that this would become just a normal Friday night. She was suspicious, until Kylo started to demonstrate that it was safe to eat the wholegrain pasta with tempeh and Brussels sprouts. Then she finally ate, trying to not look too eager even though she was starving. The food was missing some of the soy creaminess she was more used to, but it was excellent considering the circumstances.

Phasma and Hux sat across her and kept silently and uncomfortably intently watching her. Finally, Rey asked aloud what she had started to suspect:

“Are you the First Order?”

This they did not have to answer, as a door opened in the living room corner and Snoke walked in. Rey knew him right away, from so many videos she had watched so full of hatred.

He sat right next to Rey on the sofa, close enough for her to smell his breath. She wanted to back away but that would have taken her to the same distance from Kylo on her other side.

“You are all monsters”, she said before Snoke had time to speak. She turned back to Kylo and Phasma. “You blew up Belgian Shell, I saw you! And it must have been you in the other places, too, the shopping malls and the airport and the preemie babies’ hospital wing. Have you done the assassinations, too? The politicians and CEOs and cattle farmers?” Kylo and Phasma looked at each other, silently agreed that it was best to be honest and slowly nodded at Rey.

Rey turned again to face Snoke and spat on his face. “Do you have any idea about what kind of damage you are causing to the whole environmental movement?”

“Rey, let me explain our project” Snoke started to speak calmly. “Deep down you know that we are heading towards the six degrees of global warming. And nothing you do can save it. You know it, right? No matter how much you distribute flyers, write blog posts, post videos and talk to MEPs, you know that’s nothing. At night, when you’re awake after a nightmare of a war over clean water, at least then you know that it’s nothing.”

“That’s a lie”, Rey said, but the teardrops wetting the corners of her eyes gave her away for having exactly that kind of nightmares.

“That’s the truth, it’s nothing. But there’s still something that can save us. That’s why we have started our project of bringing down the producers and users of fossil fuels ourselves. After them, animal agriculture will follow. You want those industries to end, too, don’t you?”

“It has to happen through the democratic route.”

“It’s never going to happen through that route without a push from the citizen sector. And now, the more organisations join us, the quicker the MEPs will feel the pressure and the sooner they will set up the necessary regulations. Fewer deaths have to happen, and everybody wins, except for those whose time it is to lose. Rey, what we will do now, is that you and I make a video where you explain that the Friends of the Earth is joining the First Order in blowing up all the industries that are not future-proof, and pledges every other environmental organisation to do the same.”

“There’s no way I'll do that.”

With a calm and steady movement, Snoke pulled out a gun, pressed it on Rey’s brow, clicked off the safety catch and said: “Yes, you will.”

Rey had contemplated before if she would one day have to die for her cause. Was this the night to do that? She had pictured it a lot differently, probably happening somewhere abroad, in a corrupted country where civil rights were limited and where people needed her support to rise up and claim sovereignty. She would stand bravely at the frontline of a demonstration, until the police would open fire on them and she would fall, hands still clasping a banner.

This was a far less heroic scenario, being stuck in a quiet living room in the middle of nowhere, almost squeezed on a sofa between two psychopaths. And most ironic was that their cause was exactly the same as hers.

Would it be worth it to die here for the purpose of preventing the First Order from getting their video? She desperately wanted to ask Leia’s advice. As that was impossible now, she turned to the only person in the room with whom she had at least shared some kind of connection before.

“Kylo?” she asked in a trembling voice, not daring to turn her head.

Kylo could hear and see how she was shaking. He had seen lots of people die before, also by his own hands, but never up this close. And never somebody with whom he had just spoken, whom he had just carried around in his arms, whose perfectly shaped nose he had just been studying while she was unconscious. He knew that Snoke would not hesitate killing her if he did not get his way, and he desperately hoped that Rey would not try any heroic stunt that would make him do it. Aloud he said, praying that she would believe that he really meant every word:

“He will definitely do it. Just please, make that one video and then I take you back home. Do it to stay alive. You are a good person, Rey. Don’t let yourself be killed because of this.”

Somehow his words managed to calm her a bit. She took a deep breath and nodded at Snoke.


	7. Chapter 7

Kylo slept almost until mid-day. They had spent until the small hours shooting the video and he had still driven to Brussels and back to take Rey home. After breakfast, he set out to edit last night’s footage.

_H-hey, t-this is Rey f-from the Friends of the Earth…_

_No, not like that, say it like in your own videos!_

_It would be a lot easier if you would just stop pointing at me with that gun!_

What if he would release some of these early takes instead of the last one where Rey had said exactly what Snoke wanted, in her lively, adorable and convincing expression? Snoke was the only person with the password to the First Order’s YouTube account, but maybe he could set up his own or just leak the material to the Friends of the Earth.

The thought was somewhat intriguing. But the time for it would come later, after he had got what he wanted out of Snoke and Hux and… He had not yet made up his mind about Phasma.

He finished a quick draft of the edit, put it up on their server for Snoke’s review and hurried to the lab, to the room to which he had the only key.

\- - - - -

“How was your weekend?” Finn asked, rushing into the office with a bunch of empty banners and a bag of paints. Rose was on his tail carrying another set of empty banners, which she started to spread out on the floor.

“I’ve had better”, Rey answered, her hand reaching up to hold his head at the point that was still sore after Kylo’s punch.

“What happened?”

Rey did not feel like telling him. Any moment now, everybody would find it out on YouTube. She shrugged her shoulders and squatted down to the floor to help Rose with sketching the banners, signalling that she would rather do this than talk.

Finn understood the hint and let go of more questioning. He was about to join them on the floor, but opened his laptop first to put on music. Right when opening YouTube, he saw it.

“Shit! A new video from the First Order.”

As an automatic movement, he turned it on, just like he did to all the First Order’s videos, no matter how well he knew that he would hate the content. But this was something beyond what he had expected even from them.

Rey pinched her eyes closed. If she just did not watch herself saying that they were about to join an ecoterrorist movement, maybe she could make herself believe that it was somebody else.

“What’s this, Rey?” Leia asked, her attention also drawn by the video.

“They would have shot me”, Rey explained.

“Those bastards!” Poe raged. “But we can take them down. We just make another video where you explain all that happened.”

“They said they’ll find me again and kill me if I do that.”

“And they probably will. Poe, this is not worth risking Rey’s life”, Leia said and thought for a while. “We need another solution. The negotiations about carbon trade are still ongoing and we have a lot to say about that. We can try to put up so much content that this one gets buried under it.”

Rey left Finn and Rose to work on the banners by themselves and closed up into the studio with Poe to spend the whole day shooting new material.

Exhausted, Rey, Poe, Finn and Rose ended the day half crawling to Kanata’s – the pizzeria with the creamiest vegan cheese in whole Belgium. Kanata’s had five vegan pizzas on their menu: marinara and four delicious combinations of a bit of vegetables, lots of seitan with different marinades and chunks of Kanata’s signature cheeses. As was their habit, they skipped the marinara and ordered one of each other pizza and split them in four, leaving each one a generous slice of each flavour.

“Mmmm…” Rose purred with her mouth full of pizza and fingertips and lips shiny with oil. “If you run out of ideas what to talk about to cover up the First Order video, you could just make an hour-long video praising this pizza. I’m sure people would watch that rather than Snoke’s face.”

“Yes, actually, we have not done that yet. We did the one with the doughnuts, and the other one with the soy bacon burgers and one with coconut cream éclairs, but we haven’t shown people our favourite pizza.” Rey’s fingertips and lips looked like they were committed to outshining Rose’s.

“Then we have to convince Maz to share the recipe to at least one of these, because we always link the recipe to what we eat on camera”, Poe reminded.

“Oh, I forgot, that she won’t do for sure”, Rey sighed.

“You can just put the address to this place”, Rose suggested. “That’s enough of a recipe for people.”

For the rest of the dinner, they kept shooting increasingly mindless ideas for what to do in the pizza-themed video. They laughed so much that even Rey started to feel a lot better again. When only crumbles of pizza crust and drops of olive oil were left on the plates, each of them felt happily stuffed.

“I think I’ll have to roll my way home”, Rey said. “I wish I still had my bike.”

“Did you ever go back to Takodana to check if it’s still there?” Rose asked with an innocent smile.

“How would it be there? It’s been three full days, and I clearly remember I had opened the lock before I was knocked out. I’m sure somebody stole it within minutes after I was gone.”

“I guess you’re right, I was just thinking”, Rose shrugged. “We’ll have to roll then. See you tomorrow, but a bit later in the afternoon. I’ll need to work tomorrow, a huge backlog of bikes to fix.”

They all hugged and took off to their own directions. Rey took just a few steps before she came to think that she was not far from Club Takodana. It would not hurt (it could just be better for her stuffed belly and limbs that had been sitting all day) if she would take a small detour, at least to say a proper goodbye to her bike at the place where it had been stolen.

The bike rack on the street corner was almost empty, as the club was not busy on a Monday evening. Getting closer, Rey was amazed to see that one of the few bikes parked there was hers. It was carefully attached from its frame to the rack with her lock, just from a different spot from where she would usually do it. She could think of only one explanation: before taking her for the ride that would ruin her career, organisation and perhaps the whole environmental movement, Kylo Ren had decided to do her a favour and lock her bike.


	8. Chapter 8

_Hey, this is Rey…_

_…and this is Poe, and this is the Friends of the Earth channel. And today we’ll be talking about climate justice and why it’s so essential when we consider different carbon trade schemes._

_And just for fun, we're eating Kanata’s smoky seitan broccoli cashew mozzarella pizza, with just a little broccoli._

_A shout-out to Kanata’s Pizza. It’s a must-go whenever you're in Brussels. The address appears right now here in this corner. So to our point then. Rey, can you explain…_

Kylo closed the laptop with a slam. What was making him so furious about these videos that the Friends of the Earth had been pushing out with a frantic pace throughout the past couple of days?

Was he this mad about seeing her… with _him_?

That had to be a ridiculous thought. Of course he was mad about the bullshit they were talking about. He glanced at the clock on his phone. He would have to start cooking soon and he had not yet decided what to make. If he remembered correct, they had in stock red and green lentils, onions, tomatoes, at least two kilos of broccoli, quinoa and mung bean sprouts. He opened the laptop again in order to type those ingredients in the search box and see what recipes would come up.

But as soon as the screen was open, there she was again, frozen on the YouTube frame. She had turned to look at Poe Dameron, her whole expression waiting eagerly for the question that was about to come up about her favourite topic. The smile on her rosy lips made her eyes squint and revealed a dimple on her cheek.

Kylo gave in to the pull to just look at her and indulge on her profile, taking in everything about her. She looked so happy, confident and hopeful now, but Kylo remembered also the other side of her that had ever so slightly despaired when Snoke had described her nightmares about wars on clean water. There she was, already with thousands of likes on this day-old video, but clearly she was made for a lot more than this, for real game-changing impact beyond likes and encouraging comments.

And beyond all of that, he already missed her.

Kylo did not care about the lunch anymore and closed the laptop. He could perfectly well mix the ingredients without a recipe.

\- - - - -

Everyone had been eating the assembly of lentils, onions, tomatoes, broccoli, quinoa and sprouts in silence for a while, when Kylo asked: “So, now that we have Friends of the Earth on our side, should we plan the ExxonMobil visit?”

“I think we are ready for something bigger”, Hux said. “We have everything ready for the weapon. We just need to figure out a sufficient power source. And I have an idea for where to get one.”

“An idea where to get explosives equivalent to million tons of TNT, like you said? I hope you also have an idea for where to store all that.” Phasma looked sceptical.

“I said equivalent. We don’t have to use TNT. My uncle works for the Russian army and I have finally managed to convince him to help us to smuggle out a nuclear bomb.”

“So you’ve been in touch with your family?” Phasma asked, astonished.

“Well, anything for the cause. It has not been easy but it will be worth it.”

“But how would a nuclear bomb be a solution?” Kylo asked. “When it explodes, it will wipe out entire ecosystems, just what we have been trying to protect all the time.”

“That all depends on the type of nuclear bomb”, Hux explained. “There are ones that do not spread anything radioactive to the environment. The active component is only used to create the energy, and we can load the bomb with whatever we want.”

“Which will be the aerosol, right?” Snoke said.

“Exactly”, Hux confirmed. “My uncle can deliver it this weekend. I just need a bit of your help with the arrangements.”


	9. Chapter 9

The strategy of overpowering the First Order on YouTube by posting a frantic amount of videos was not working. More than half of the monthly private donations to the Friends of the Earth had already been cancelled. MEPs who would normally be excited to meet them to discuss their agenda stopped responding their emails and calls. And when Poe announced the police that they wanted to run a demonstration in two weeks, he got a response that permission could not be granted because public safety could not be guaranteed.

Desperate for any idea for how to fix the situation, Rey found herself typing in her search bar _Kylo Ren_. She found a twitter account without a picture, specialised on angry tweets at MEPs and some on environmental organisations, including a few responses to Rey’s own tweets. On YouTube he had also commented on some of Rey and Poe’s videos.

But more interestingly, he had his own YouTube channel, with only one video that had been just posted yesterday evening. Rey turned her screen a bit to get it out of Leia’s peripheral view, put on her headphones and clicked it on.

_Hello, I’m Kylo Ren from the First Order. I want to comment on the First Order’s recent video, which I link here in this corner, about our collaboration with the Friends of the Earth. The truth is that we forced the Friends of the Earth Europe’s Media and Communications Manager Rey Palpatine to appear on the video. Here, let me show you a clip._

_H-hey, t-this is Rey f-from the Friends of the Earth…_

_No, not like that, say it like in your own videos!_

_It would be a lot easier if you would just stop pointing at me with that gun!_

_In reality, the Friends of the Earth remains a peaceful organisation with their own agenda, which you can find more about on their channel, linked in this corner. Now that that’s said, I have another message just for you, Rey, if you are watching. I’m sorry I put you through this. I want you to know that wherever you are, you’re not alone. I’ll come back for you, Rey, and I promise I won’t snatch you again. This time I’ll let you decide yourself if you want to follow me._

Rey was shaking after the video ended. She was not sure about how to take it. As a threat? But then she thought again about her bike, locked tidily at the street corner next to Club Takodana. And about his dark eyes looking sincerely and straight at the camera during the last part of the video. And how he had apparently made a personal channel for the purpose of this disclosure, very possibly putting himself at risk.

She knew what she had to do and closed herself alone in the studio. She had never had a personal YouTube channel but setting one up was quick and easy. She fixed her mike and turned the camera a bit so that it was pointing straight at her instead of the arrangement of her and Poe’s chairs where they usually would sit together. Then she spoke, with a bit less of enthusiasm, structure and assertion as in her normal videos, more like she would be talking to him right in front of her:

“Hello, I’m Rey. I have a message just for Kylo Ren. First of all, thank you for helping us make things right again. That means a lot for the whole movement. I can see that you are not meant for the First Order but you deserve better. I’ll help you leave it behind. Kylo, you’re a good person underneath, and you’re not alone either.”

She watched it briefly before posting. It was far from perfect. She had taken some breaks that were a bit too long and staggered with some words. Sounded like she had dropped into such a vulnerable state that her French accent had come out more than usual. But she did not bother re-shooting or editing, just posted it and pasted the link as a comment to Kylo’s video.

\- - - - -

The same evening, when Rey lifted her head up after locking her bike in the rack next to her apartment, she saw him. He was without the hood, just in black jeans and sweater, at an easy distance to punch her. But he did not do anything, just like he had promised.

“Thank you for helping me keep my bike”, Rey said first.

“It would have been stolen in an instant. Then you would have bought a new one and that would have caused extra consumption.”

“I think you know perfectly well that I would have bought one second-hand. It was you who wanted to do something nice for me.”

Kylo did not respond.

“You’re done with the First Order, right?” she asked.

“Yes, I’m leaving, I have other plans. And I want you to come with me.”

“Where? What’s your plan?”

“I cannot tell you. I just want you beside me. Will you join me, please?”

“Do you realise what you’re asking me to do? Just follow you blindly to something, when your track record is mostly blowing up buildings and shooting people!”

“Rey, I’m done with that. I promise you that nobody will die. That much I can tell you.”

“Not even I?”

“Especially not you. I won’t let it happen. I see that you are made for something bigger than the Friends of the Earth. You’re meant to be changing the game. But right now, you’re just a YouTuber whom people watch when they want an illusion that everything is going to be ok – that somebody cares, has figured out what to do with the environment and is fighting for it. You’re just a lobbyist that politicians like to hang out and take selfies with to give an impression that they care, just to vote differently behind your back afterwards. Beyond that, you’re nothing. But not to me. We could really change the course of everything together – put an end to climate change, biodiversity loss, eutrophication, everything we have been fighting against.”

It was painful for him to see how much his words hurt Rey. But they were clearly making her think, bringing her to hover on the edge of a decision. Aloud she said:

“But can’t you tell me... something?”

“How about I tell you one more thing? I already told you that nobody will die, and you can choose one other thing. One question, and then you decide if you’re with me.”

Rey went through in her head all the questions that seemed shady in his plan. Is it something illegal? Where are we going? Do I need something with me? Are we still coming back? Are you just going to take me somewhere in the middle of nowhere to rape and kill me? Suddenly, among all the questions, she knew exactly which one she wanted to ask:

“What’s your real name?”

“Ben Solo.”

The corners of Rey’s lips bent into a subtle smile and she let him take her hand and take her again into his biogas car.


	10. Chapter 10

“How many views on my video now?” Ben asked in the car.

“Just a couple of thousand, but that’s a lot for your first one”, Rey replied, browsing her phone.

“That could be enough for it to pop up in Snoke’s feed. He’ll be mad if he has watched it. We need to act quickly once we are there. I have made all the preparations. You just need to follow me and run.”

“Ok. What about the others?”

“We’ll just leave them behind and they’ll have to deal with it.” He drew a long, slow breath, which made Rey wonder about something.

“That woman you did the attacks with and who cooked for us the other night, is she your girlfriend?”

“No. She’s… my friend. How about that guy in your videos, is he your…”

“Poe Dameron?” Rey giggled. “Of course not. He’s just my Poe.”

Both smiling slightly more than they would have liked to show, they drove on through the gathering dusk, listening to the gentle hum of the biogas motor.

Once they reached the lab, Ben ran straight out of the car towards the end of the building, Rey following close behind him. But Snoke had heard the car arrive. He was quickly out of the door with a gun in his hand, shooting at Ben and Rey as they ran.

Ben told Rey to keep going, open a garage door that they already saw close to the end of the building and get inside. Himself, he stopped and turned around. He pulled out his gun, aimed at Snoke’s head and shot him.

As his body fell to the ground, Ben saw Hux and Phasma by Snoke’s sides, guns pointing back at himself. For a moment, he could not decide which one to aim at first. Phasma was more dangerous but so much more difficult for him to shoot.

In the split second that he wasted thinking about it, Phasma turned and shot Hux. Then she dropped her gun and turned back to face Ben. Following her example, he let his gun fall to the ground.

“I don’t know what you’re doing”, she said, “but I hope you do. I guessed that you would be leaving at some point, because I saw that you were better than this. I had… maybe some hopes that you might take me with you, but if that’s not your decision, then I… I respect that.”

“I was really considering it, Phasma. Thank you for understanding. And thank you, really, for everything. Who knows, maybe you’re better than this, too. We should just both do something else than killing for a while. Will you take care of the animals?” He glanced towards the door to the labs.

“I will.” She smiled and then turned her head away.

Ben followed Rey into the garage and they jumped into the helicopter. As the ceiling opened and they rose up above the walls, he saw that Phasma was looking up at them, her hand passing by the corner of her eye.

\- - - - -

They flew the whole night, most of the time on autopilot so that both could drowse off to sleep. In the middle of the night they stopped for fuel. Then Rey knew that they were going southwards over France, as she had to help Ben with buying biogas in French.

Close to mid-day they landed on a desert, with nothing in sight but sand and a burning sun. But Ben had prepared for all of it. The helicopter was loaded with plenty of water and headscarves for both. And its air conditioning kept them surreally comfortable, considering how the conditions looked like outdoors.

Once they were prepared to face the sun, Ben lifted up the floor panel of the helicopter and said: “I need a hand now.”

They lifted up a giant box from under the panel. They were only able to move it in short bursts. First up to the helicopter floor. Then a bit to the side to reach the door. Then out on the sand. And finally a few steps of half a meter. Ben set out to program something with the buttons on the side of the box.

“What’s that?” Rey asked.

“I’ll tell you everything once we’re out of here”, Ben answered without lifting his gaze off the buttons. They were both dripping with sweat and the sun just kept rising higher.

Finally satisfied, Ben turned back to Rey with an exhausted smile. He grabbed her shoulder and took her back to the helicopter. For a moment, they both just breathed the heavenly air-conditioned air.

Ben brought his attention quickly back to the controls and took off. They flew over more and more sand, until they reached a little oasis town. An adorable lake lay in the middle of it, reflecting the surrounding houses and palm trees. The streets were lively with camels and people, women veiled and men covered from the sun in other creative ways. Looking around, Rey became aware of her stomach growling.

“How are we ever going to find vegan food here?” A mirage of Kanata’s pizza appeared on the edge of her mind.

“This is Algeria, they speak French, we’ll figure out something”, Ben assured.

They sat down in a tent restaurant and Rey glanced down at the Arabic menu.

“Avez-vous quelque chose de végétalien?”

“Mousse au chocolat au lait de chamelle?” the waiter suggested.

“Non, merci. Quelque chose de complètement sans aliments d’origine animale?”

“Alors… Sont les dattes ok?”

They ended up with only a bowl of dates between them. But the bowl was huge, and that would give Ben plenty of time to explain everything he had kept secret so far.


	11. Chapter 11

“So what was it, the heaviest thing in the world that we just carried around under the hottest sun in the world?”

“It was a nuclear bomb.”

Rey stood up, smashing her hands on the table. “For fuck’s sake, Ben! You promised that nobody would die and I believed you!”

Ben caught her wrist in a gentle grip and pulled her slightly downwards to sit again.

“Let me finish. A nuclear bomb that does not spread anything radioactive but that can be loaded with something else.”

“And what was it loaded with?”

“Snoke and Hux wanted to load it with an aerosol carrying a biological weapon. We had been developing it for years. We had optimised it to kill about 75% of the human population. That would give a chance for other life forms again.”

“I can’t believe you. And I guess you had everything planned, a vaccine for only yourselves and those who would pay enough for it.”

“No, Rey. We had specifically designed it so that no vaccine could be developed for it with the current technologies, at least not fast enough before it would have done its job.”

“So you knew that…”

“Yes, we knew that even among ourselves, statistically only one would be left alive, possibly no one. But that was what we were ready to do for the cause. That’s climate justice.”

“No, it’s not.”

“There can be many opinions. But in this one I agree with you. Even if the deaths would happen completely randomly for 75% of people across the globe, it would still be deaths caused on purpose, also affecting those who have not actively participated in causing the environmental crisis. This I tried to explain but Snoke and Hux wouldn’t listen. So I had to start a secret project of my own. And now I’m finished. I discovered an aerosol-mediated contraceptive.”

“What?”

“An aerosol that makes people infertile, just from breathing it in.”

“And that’s what’s loaded in the nuclear bomb? Which is about to explode… When?”

Ben glanced at the time on his phone. “In about ten minutes. Eight hours from that, it will have spread across Africa and Europe. And in 20 hours across the globe. Plus minus a few hours depending on the weather patterns. We have run the simulations.”

“I can’t believe what I just helped you do.” Rey covered her face with both her palms. After a bit of hesitation and gathering courage, Ben reached forward to softly caress the back of her hand.

“Rey, my sweet Rey, there’s no need to be ashamed. What’s bad or wrong about it? We’re the species that's wiping out the others. We would have earned to die a slow and painful death. But like this, nobody has to die. Just billions of people are not going to be born, which is a victory for the Earth.”

“But what about those who are like us, the orangutans, the chimpanzees, the bonobos, isn’t it going to affect them, too?”

“We have a lot of test animals in our lab, including all the primate species. I have tested it on all of them. They’ll be safe, it only works on humans.”

Tears were creeping into Rey’s eyes. The truth was that she was bringing up the list of primate species because she was not yet ready to think about the consequences for… herself. Of course, she had signed a petition that she would not have children before the carbon tax was implemented. That she would not even have interest for – giving birth to a baby without hope of a habitable planet. But deep down in her heart, she had been keeping up a spark of hope that one day, the right decisions could be made to fit the society justly inside the planetary boundaries. And then, maybe she could have a family of her own.

That tiny spark was about to be blown out in less than five minutes now. The Earth would win, for sure. By the time she would be old, she would probably already see a lot of habitats restoring and damaged ecosystems flourishing again. And when those who now were babies would die, it would be over for humans. Was it worth it? Well, now it had to be because there was no turning back.

Out of a sudden craving for comfort at the moment when so much was about to blast, she grabbed Ben’s both hands and let her tears flow freely. And Ben squeezed her hands back with a comforting steadiness when the pressure wave hit them.

Even though they had flown miles away from the nuclear bomb, the pressure wave was strong enough to lock their ears and curve the fabric of the tent. It lasted for at least a minute. The streets of the town were filled with apocalyptic panic, but eventually the wave passed without doing damage.

Rey felt lighter, like the passing pressure wave would have flushed her sorrow, and they went back to eating their dates.

After a while of silence, Rey asked: “Do you know your mother is my boss?”

“Of course.”

“She misses you.”

“I think I might miss her, too. Can I ask now if your parents are still in France?”

“No, they’re gone. You remember when the draught hit Syria? They went there to do humanitarian work. And one day, they were out on the street in the heat, when they took out a bottle of water from their bag to drink. Somebody saw it and stabbed them to death, just to have that bottle. They were fucking killed by climate change. They were killed because a draught made poor people desperate. I dropped out of high school right then and moved to Brussels and swore that I would do everything in my power to stop it. I was so freaking mad at the system: all the possibilities to set regulations that would stop habitats being destroyed and people suffering, but so many politicians like Palpatine pushing against those.”

“And what do you plan to do now that those regulations are not necessary anymore?”

“Well, it’s still my job to push for them. And I would prefer to see the environment recovering faster, and people living with equal opportunities as long as there are people left. How about you, what do you plan to do now?”

“Still finding it out”, Ben answered slowly, staring at a spot on the table in front of him.


	12. Chapter 12

“Pardon, Monsieur, avez-vous du biogaz?” Rey asked one more vendor.

“Non, Mademoiselle, demandez-lui.” She was pointed to yet another one.

And finally, this vendor had it. Not enough to fill the whole tank of the helicopter, but enough to get them pretty far, at least to a bigger city.

“Where do you want to go now?” Ben asked. “You followed me here even though there was so much I didn’t tell you beforehand, so now you definitely can decide.”

Rey smiled. She was sweating after the effort of strolling through street vendors and walking to the helicopter to fill it, but now they had found a cover of a palm tree. Even the sun was not anymore as high as mid-day, and most importantly, walking around in the heat had turned out totally bearable when not carrying a nuclear bomb.

“For now, I’d most like to stay here for a while. The sandy horizon is so beautiful. And there would be so good opportunities for a reforestation project. There’s something about this place that makes me feel like home.”

“Really?”

“At least for the night I definitely want to stay. I’ve heard the stars should look amazing over the desert. About the reforestation project, let’s say I’m half joking. I would like to stay or come back to do that, but I need Kanata’s pizza once in a while.”

“What’s that?”

“Don’t you know the best vegan pizza in Brussels even though you’ve lived so close all this time?”

“No... We took turns to cook with the First Order and didn’t really go to Brussels to eat out.”

Rey looked into his deep eyes and realized how his time in the First Order had caused him not only to gather a bunch of traumatic experiences of killing helpless people, including his own father, but also to miss out on the fun and deliciousness offered by the cosmopolitan city that he had lived so close to but only entered for shooting or bombing. About the first issue, she would have time to get him to talk later, preferably with a professional. The second issue she would start fixing right away when they would be back to Brussels, possibly already tomorrow night.

Right now, when both of those plans were still so far away in space and time, she just rose up on her toes, grabbed his sweater to pull him down and kissed him.

\- - - - -

The starry sky over the desert did not disappoint them. Right after sunset when the stars started their appearance, the temperature outside was perfect. The darkness grew fast and revealed a dome of diamonds above them. They lay down on the sand, feet to the opposite directions, heads next to each other with tops of the heads touching each other’s shoulders, so that they could lean their cheeks together while watching the stars and easily kiss over and over again by just turning their heads.

As the temperature dropped too low, they went inside their hotel room. Or practically, it was Ben’s room where Rey sneaked in. To comply with the hotel regulations, they had had to book two rooms because they had no proof of being married.

They finished another bowl of dates that they had bought earlier but only eaten half-way before they had realised that the unique chance to see the desert sunset was starting. The sunset had looked so amazing that now, between mouthfuls of dates, they were already more seriously talking about coming back for the reforestation project.

Rey swallowed her half of the final date with savoured attention. It was a perfect individual, soft and juicy as it rolled through her mouth. And still after all the dates were gone, Ben’s mouth tasted just the same, and his tongue felt just as soft, exploring the interior of her mouth. He kept her face cupped in his palms where it almost fully disappeared in, until he slid his hands down over her neck, around her _Climate justice NOW!_ badge, down her chest, sides and under her tunic.

It was like her skin could breath again when he pulled off her tunic and t-shirt that she had been wearing for already two days in a row, and large part of it in the desert heat. Suddenly craving for a lot more contact with his skin, she pulled off his sweater and t-shirt and entangled herself against his chest. He kissed her neck and stroked her back and thigh, making his way to the buttons of her pants.

Then something rose up in Rey's mind, a memory from school from years back, something she had to ask, even though she did not feel at all like interrupting this moment in any way. But she made herself to back away from him and ask it:

“Errr… Emmm… Do you have condoms with you? Or shall I go to ask from the reception?”

“Who needs condoms anymore? We just blew up a nuclear bomb full of contraceptive aerosol almost next to us.”

“Oh, yes… I didn’t think about that. But how about all the, you know… other things, like diseases and stuff? I mean, have you been with others?”

“Nope. Have you?”

Rey shook her head, a smile conquering her whole face. She had been dreading of going back to meet the veiled receptionist to ask where she could buy condoms.

Their bodies popped back together like two magnets as they threw themselves into studying each other. Ben seemed to never get enough of marvelling everything about Rey and repeating:

“You’re so beautiful, Rey, just beautiful beautiful beautiful…”

Rey slipped into a string of mixed English, French and wordless sounds of delight, love and bliss. It was all so delicious, wet and awesome. And they had so much they wanted to explore. When they were done for the first evening, she fell asleep with her head on his shoulder, as entangled with his naked body as she could.


	13. Chapter 13

A couple of months later, Rey arrived home after another long workday. Since the European Parliament had decided to take a new model of carbon tax back to the plenary agenda, the Friends of the Earth had been busy campaigning for it. And in parallel, the stagnant carbon trade negotiations had been broken down to smaller working groups, and they had done their everything to monitor and influence each of them.

Now she had finally good news she was looking forward to bursting on Ben. Two kinds of good news, in fact: one that he would for sure be immediately happy about, too, and another one that he might need more time to process. She found him at her home as usual. The apartment was tiny for the two of them, but they were not planning to stay for long.

“How are you, sweetheart?” she asked with a kiss.

“I’m good. I got some more research done on reforestation, and also on the Algerian visa process. It just still seems very complex. And it looks like we might have to get married to get an apartment there.”

“Is that a proposal?”

“Let me get back to that a bit later with better preparation. How was your day?”

Rey just made a bigger smile.

“Looks like excellent. What happened?”

“Haven’t you seen the news? The carbon tax went through! And the new draft for the carbon trade model includes prevention of ghost offsets and emission exports. They have finally done what we have been asking for! And the head of the Agriculture and Rural Development Committee has agreed to a meeting with Leia about the gradual closure of animal agriculture. It will be a slow process but that’s a start, because previously they have refused to even hear us about it.”

Ben lifted Rey in to a hug so high that their cheeks touched.

“Can this be true? I never thought democracy could work this way, like really responding to what people ask”, he marvelled.

“Well, that’s how it’s supposed to work, and apparently sometimes does.”

“Had we known that this was possible, we wouldn’t have even needed the contraceptive bomb. I mean, if people just can decide what’s best for them, there’s nothing wrong with us as part of the biosphere.”

“Actually, that’s another thing I wanted to tell you about. That aerosol didn’t work.”

“How do you know that?”

“At least it didn’t work on us. Because I’m pregnant.”

Ben opened and closed his mouth a couple of times without getting a word out.

“Are you happy?” Rey tried to help him find at least one word.

“The happiest I’ve ever been, but also so afraid. If the aerosol didn’t work, it means that we still can’t be sure if there will be anything left on the Earth for a child - anything else than shortage of clean water and food and all the conflicts that spring out of it.”

“I used to be afraid of that, too. But don’t you see how everything has changed today? The necessary decisions are now happening to contain the economy inside the doughnut. The politicians we want to trust are finally looking after us and our future. There’s hope again, for Earth. Don’t you see it?”

Slowly, the meaning behind Rey’s words sank into Ben. For him, the fight had always been for others – for the animals, plants and fungi suppressed by humankind. It had never occurred to him that he could become the one who would benefit, to have the chance to enjoy life in a society where things were being corrected. When he still looked like puzzled about how happy he could feel about it, Rey added:

“Go ahead, be happy if you want to. You officially deserve it, Ben Solo.”

That was the permission he had been waiting for. As soon as Rey said it aloud, he let himself be overtaken by bliss. He laughed aloud out of relief, lifted Rey up again and put her down sitting on the kitchen counter so that she was on the right height for him to kiss to his heart’s content. Then, he gently rolled up her shirt and, with the softest possible lips, kissed her belly.


	14. Chapter 14

Rey was already moving very slowly when she went with Ben to eat at Kanata’s for the first time. After returning from Algeria, she had been too busy, and he seemed rather indifferent about Brussels’ vegan cheese scene. But to Rey’s surprise, the first evening of her maternity leave from work, Ben insisted that they would go.

He also insisted to sit Rey straight to the table and go to make their order at the counter by himself. Rey found it odd but was thankful, because it meant that she had to drag her belly around a bit less. Only once the waiter arrived with the pizzas did she find out what he had been hiding.

“What? Ben, you ordered yourself a marinara! Here of all places, when the creamiest vegan cheese of whole Belgium is at your grasp.”

“I happen to like this, Rey. We used to make this sometimes.”

“With the First Order?”

“Yes, and also with my parents.”

Rey did not fully understand but was ready to accept it for now. She was still hopeful that after cutting her own pizza into her usual four slices, she could exchange one with Ben and convert him. She picked up a knife and looked down at her own pizza to start cutting, when she saw what he had ordered for her. It was the smoky seitan broccoli pizza, which somebody from the Kanata's kitchen team had topped with cashew mozzarella in the shape of text:

_WILL YOU MARRY ME?_

One of the broccoli pieces had a grey ring around it. Rey picked it up and wiped off the oil with a napkin.

“What is this made of?” she asked.

“Recycled stainless steel.”

“Oh, I love you, Ben.”

“I love you, too, Rey. So what do you say?”

“Yes yes yes yes yes yes yes, with all my heart yes!”

Rey was not anymore sure which was better, the mouthfuls of the creamy pizza or kissing Ben in between them. They exchanged one slice but neither of them was converted. Rey had to admit, though, that even Kanata’s marinara tasted excellent.

When they were done, Ben went to pay at the counter and came back with a rectangular mesh bag, like one used for transporting cats. But when he gave it to Rey, she saw that there was no cat inside, but a baby orangutan, with its thin orange hair pointing in all directions.

“I heard from Phasma that he was born in the lab last week. The mother was weak because a version of the biological weapon had been tested on her earlier, so she died in childbirth. I asked Phasma to bring the baby here so that we could take him home. Now our baby can have somebody to play with.”

“That’s so nice of Phasma. We should invite her over some time.”

“Sure, if you would just like it. I was not sure if you would.”

“Of course I would. You hang out with my friends so often, too. Mmmm, he’s adorable!” Rey picked up the organgutan from the bag. “What's your name, little one?”

The orangutan made soft smacks with its lips.

“What are you saying? Beh-beh-beh-beh-beh-beh-beh-beh? We’ll call you BB-8.”


End file.
